Emma

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT EMMA - PAGE 2

2 :45 a.m. We are up earlier than usual. My husband, Joe, will ride in to work with a vanload of men from our community. Joe will be the first one picked up. Our neighbor usually takes him but he didn't go to work today. Joe will sure be glad to leave 35 minutes later again tomorrow morning. 3:10 a.m. Joe has left for work at his factory job and I go back to bed for a few hours. 6 a.m. Time to get the children up and ready for school. 6:40 a.m. The girls have fixed scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast.

It is early on Saturday morning as I write this and everyone else is still in bed. I decided to get up early today to write this column. A 79-year-old member of our church district passed away yesterday morning. He had been a widower for the past 23 years. While he didn't have any children, he leaves to mourn a lot of relatives in this area. He had lived with his niece and her family and had his own part of the house. The viewing will be there and the funeral will be at another niece's house on Monday.

Monday morning is upon us again. Time to start another week. I was glad to be able to send all five children back to school and in good health. The flu has been making its rounds in area schools and factories. That makes us all the more glad to see spring weather come. Our ground is covered again with quite a few inches of snow since Friday. Traveling was very difficult as there was ice, too. Yesterday we had sister Emma, husband Jacob and family along with sisters Verena and Susan here.

SOUTH BEND - Prince of Peace Church of the Brethren was the setting for the 4:30 p.m. Aug. 2 wedding of Stephanie Hinds and Jeffrey Duval. They are making their home in South Bend. The brideÂ?s parents are Carol and Ron Derflinger of Bloomington, Ind., and Emma and Buster Hinds of Terre Haute, Ind. The groom is the son of Pam and Joe Duval of Niles. The bride graduated from South Vigo High School, Terre Haute, and Ivy Tech State College. She is employed as a nurse for Our Lady of Peace Hospital at Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center.

Rene C. Coddens, 81, of Fort Wayne, died Thursday, March 30, 2006, at 9:35 a.m., in his residence. Born July 1, 1924, in South Bend, he was the son of the late Adiel Coddens and Emma (DeLater). He was a Branch Manager at Peter Eckrich for over 30 years, retiring in 1986. He was a member of South Bend Masonic Lodge, South Bend Moose Lodge and American Health & Fitness Club. Surviving are his wife, Doris (Sauers) Codders; one daughter, D. Janelle Coddens; and one grandson, Rodney Coddens.

Council services are held in preparation for Communion services. Everyone does get a lunch break. Two tables are set and everyone takes turns to come eat starting around 11 o'clock until everyone is fed. Emma plans to have chicken noodle soup, bologna, cheese spread, peanut butter spread, pickles, red beets, hot peppers, jam, wheat and white bread, and four different kinds of cookies. The bread and cookies are all being brought in by women from our church. I made the jam for her which is the green tomato jam recipe I shared in last week's column.

On June 14 our oldest child, Elizabeth, turned 17. We were still living with my parents at the time she was born. It was nice having my mother there to give advice on how to care for a little newborn for the first time. And I still had three sisters at home, too, so Elizabeth never lacked for attention those first couple of years. When Elizabeth was just 3 or 4 months old, we moved into a trailer house across the driveway but it was close enough that she saw grandma, grandpa and her aunts almost daily.

Editor's note: The Amish Cook column is entering its 20th year in 2011. There will be some remembrances, special columns and events in the year ahead, so watch the column for information. There is a reader poll at http://www.amishcookonline.com looking for feedback about the column. Thank you. The first week of school is over now, which is hard to believe. Our youngest, Kevin, 5, has adjusted to school a lot better than I thought he would. He is ready for bed at night after a half day of school and playing outside after he comes home.

I just came home a while ago from sister Emma and Jacob's house. I went over to add more coal to their stove. Emma and Jacob's children are staying with us while they are at the hospital with their 6 1/2-month-old baby, Steven. He is scheduled to have heart surgery today. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. We miss seeing little Steven, but we will all be relieved if the surgery is a success. Steven had a heart murmur at birth, and this surgery will repair that. He is such a sweetheart, and we enjoy him so much.

THE AMISH COOK LOVINA EICHER We attended a late Christmas gathering at the home of my husband Joe's dad on Feb. 4. Three out of Joe's 12 siblings couldn't make it, so the gathering was smaller than it might have been. We are quite a big bunch when we all get together, especially in my father-in-law's small house, but we managed. Last year, we had the gathering at our house on New Year's Day. Joe grilled 40 pounds of chicken. We had plenty left over, but we just wanted to make sure there was enough for everyone.